The news, coming in the wake of the West Coast main line franchising fiasco, suggests a more solid future for the train operator, co-owned by Sir Richard’s Virgin Group, and its publicly listed partner, Stagecoach.

As recently as two months ago, it appeared likely that Virgin Trains would be wound up in December after the Department for Transport awarded a 15-year West Coast contract to rival First Group.

But, after an internal review found the franchising process was based on flawed assumptions, Virgin was handed a nine-month extension to its contract while the new Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, considers how best to proceed with a fresh bidding process.

When the initial West Coast decision was revealed in August, Sir Richard suggested that any possible thought of bidding for the London-Newcastle-Edinburgh route was over.

But in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph this weekend, he said: “If the process is fair, which I’m sure it will be, and open, which I’m sure it will be, then I think it’s very likely we’ll throw our hat in the ring on East Coast.

“What I would hope is that any new bidding process will take into account innovation, and the quality of ideas.” The East Coast has been run by a Government-appointed operator for the past three years after both GNER and National Express were forced to hand the franchises back after failing to fulfil the contract.

On both occasions, Virgin Trains lost out, including in 2007 when National Express bid £1.4bn to win the franchise until 2015.

“We know what needs to be done on East Coast, and we think we’ve got the team to do it. It urgently needs investment and we’d be delighted to do it,” Sir Richard said.

He added that, although his original investment plans included a high-speed upgrade, this appeared unlikely due to the Government’s commitment to High Speed 2, which will run first between London and the Midlands.

However, he said he thought that Virgin “could transform the experience for the travelling public on the east coast”.